press releases
Cybrexa Therapeutics Receives SBIR Grant to Support Development of Lead Candidate CBX-11 in Combination with Chemotherapy Agents
New Haven, Conn., July 2, 2019 – Cybrexa Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing a new class of cancer therapeutics through its alphalex™ tumor targeting platform, today announced that the company has been awarded a Fast Track Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH). This award will support the development of the company’s lead candidate, CBX-11, Cybrexa’s proprietary alphalex™ technology combined with the already-approved oral small molecule poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor rucaparib, in combination with chemotherapy.
Per Hellsund, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cybrexa Therapeutics, stated, “We are extremely grateful to the NIH for this grant, the recognition of our science, and the importance of advancing the development of our new class of small molecule DNA repair inhibitors and DNA-damaging agents. In particular, this NIH grant will aid Cybrexa’s development of lead candidate, CBX-11, which we plan to enter into the clinic in the first quarter of next year. CBX-11 has the potential to enable effective treatment of tumors that are not homologous recombination deficient in combination with DNA-damaging chemotherapy agents.”
Ranjit Bindra, Cybrexa scientific co-founder and collaborator on the proposal, added, “It’s quite exciting to see that our technology has been favorably peer-reviewed from a scientific standpoint, gaining traction with acceptances for presentation at medical meetings, and is now being supported by a highly competitive grant award program such as the SBIR. This SBIR grant represents an important external validation of the core technology that Cybrexa is developing.”
About National Institute of Health (NIH) and Small Business Innovation Research
NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) is one of the largest sources of early-stage capital for technology commercialization in the United States and enables small businesses to engage in federal research and development of innovative biomedical technologies with a strong potential for commercialization. In FY2018, NIH’s SBIR and STTR programs will invest over 1 billion dollars into health and life science companies that are creating innovative technologies that align with NIH’s mission to improve health and save lives.
About Poly (ADP-ribosome) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors in Combination with Chemotherapy
Poly (ADP-ribosome) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors have demonstrated clear efficacy as monotherapies in the clinic against metastatic solid tumors in cancers with homologous recombination deficiency (HRD). PARP inhibitors have showed only limited activity against non-HRD cancers. Combination therapy with DNA-damaging chemotherapy agents has the potential to greatly enhance anti-tumor activity in non-HRD cancers, but combining PARP inhibitors with chemotherapy in clinical studies has been challenging largely due to the accompanying toxicity.
About alphalexTM Platform
The Cybrexa alphalex™ technology platform enables the delivery of small molecules across the cell membrane under low pH conditions, which is a universal feature of cancer cells. As a result, alphalex™ technology – which consists of a novel peptide, linker and small molecule anti-cancer agent – allows for antigen-independent, intracellular delivery of small molecule anti-cancer agents directly into the tumor cell. View a video of the mechanism of action of the technology at http://www.cybrexa.com/our-technology/.
About Cybrexa
Cybrexa is a privately-held biotechnology company dedicated to developing an entirely new class of cancer therapies using its alphalex™ platform to deliver anti-cancer agents directly into tumor cells. The Company’s lead candidate, CBX-11 (alphalex™-rucaparib), is in preclinical development with advancing plans to initiate clinical development by 1Q 2020. Cybrexa was founded by physician-scientists, and has an experienced management team that has built numerous successful life sciences companies and raised hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital. For more information about Cybrexa, please visit www.cybrexa.com.
Contacts
Media Relations
Cybrexa Therapeutics Closes $13.4M in Series B1 Funding Round
New Haven, Conn., June 20, 2019 – Cybrexa Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing a new class of cancer therapeutics through its alphalex™ tumor targeting platform, today announced the completion of a $13.4 million Series B1 financing.
This brings the company’s total capital raised to date to $21.1 million. Cybrexa’s existing investors – CT Innovations, HighCape Capital Special Opportunities Fund, and Cycle Venture Partners – all participated in the round. Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance Cybrexa’s first clinical candidate CBX-11 (alphalexTM-rucaparib) into clinical development and to progress additional programs in its preclinical pipeline.
“This level of financial support from our investors demonstrates the continued enthusiasm and validation for our innovative, proprietary alphalex™ platform technology,” said Per Hellsund, President & CEO of Cybrexa. “We look forward to advancing our lead candidate, CBX-11, into the clinic by the first quarter of 2020 as well as further developing additional new therapeutic candidates leveraging our alphalex™ technology, which we believe has the transformative potential to improve tumor response and overall survival while limiting toxicity.”
About the alphalex™ Technology Platform
The Cybrexa alphalex™ technology platform enables the delivery of small molecules across the cell membrane under low pH conditions, which is a universal feature of cancer cells. As a result, alphalex™ technology – which consists of a novel peptide, linker and small molecule anti-cancer agent – allows for antigen-independent, intracellular delivery of small molecule anti-cancer agents directly into the tumor cell. View a video of the mechanism of action of the technology at http://www.cybrexa.com/our-technology/.
About Cybrexa
Cybrexa is a privately-held biotechnology company dedicated to developing an entirely new class of cancer therapies using its alphalex™ platform to deliver anti-cancer agents directly into tumor cells. The Company’s lead candidate, CBX-11 (alphalex™-rucaparib), is in preclinical development with advancing plans to initiate clinical development by 1Q 2020. Cybrexa was founded by physician-scientists, and has an experienced management team that has built numerous successful life sciences companies and raised hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital. For more information about Cybrexa, please visit www.cybrexa.com.
Contacts
Media Relations
Cybrexa Therapeutics’ Preclinical Data Demonstrate its alphalex™ Platform Enables Tumor…
Read More
Cybrexa Therapeutics’ Preclinical Data Demonstrate its alphalex™ Platform Enables Tumor Targeting of Multiple PARP Inhibitors, Effectively Inducing Significant Tumor Cell Killing When Combined with Chemotherapy
Cybrexa Therapeutics’ Preclinical Data Demonstrate its alphalex™ Platform Enables Tumor Targeting of Multiple PARP Inhibitors, Effectively Inducing Significant Tumor Cell Killing When Combined with Chemotherapy
Results support the potential of alphalex™ technology with diverse range of anticancer agents
Targets HRD-negative cancers, while avoiding significant bone marrow toxicity typically induced when PARP inhibitors are combined with chemotherapy
New Haven, Conn., May 15, 2019 – Cybrexa Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing a new class of cancer therapeutics through its alphalex™ tumor targeting platform, today announced preclinical data supporting the potential of its proprietary alphalex™ technology platform. Results from multiple preclinical studies demonstrate that alphalex™ successfully enables the combination of a diverse range of structurally unique PARP inhibitors with DNA damaging chemotherapies in doses that effectively induce significant tumor cell killing, representing a new approach to target homologous recombination deficiency (HRD)-negative cancers without causing significant bone marrow toxicity.
The studies showed that each of the alphalex™-PARP inhibitor conjugated molecules was successfully delivered to tumor cells while sparing other tissues. Researchers observed significant reductions in PARylation activity and strong synergy with DNA damaging agents in vitro. Researchers then demonstrated that alphalex™-PARP inhibitor conjugates in combination with both temozolomide and irinotecan induced significant tumor cell killing in HRD-negative tumors in vivo. Importantly, they found that the alphalex™ tumor-targeting approach significantly reduced normal tissue toxicity, with almost complete sparing of the bone marrow relative to temozolomide alone.
“Cybrexa’s unique alphalex™ platform enables multiple PARP inhibitor combinations with clinically-relevant chemotherapies, providing a new way to target HRD-negative cancers without significant bone marrow toxicity,” said Vishwas Paralkar, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of Cybrexa. “Based on these successful proof-of-concept data, we are now performing IND-enabling studies for our lead program, CBX-11 (alphalex-rucaparib), and plan to initiate our first Phase I clinical trial in the first quarter of 2020 in solid tumors independent of HRD status. This is the first of several programs we plan to bring to the clinic that have the ability to leverage the efficacy of known potent anticancer agents without inducing associated toxicities.”
The data were published in an online only abstract, titled “Unlocking PARP inhibitor efficacy for HRD-negative cancers using the alphalex™ tumor targeting platform,” accepted by the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting 2019.
https://abstracts.asco.org/239/AbstView_239_267983.html
About the alphalex™ Technology Platform
The Cybrexa alphalex™ technology platform enables the delivery of small molecules across the cell membrane under low pH conditions, which is a universal feature of cancer cells. As a result, alphalex™ technology – which consists of a novel peptide, linker and small molecule anti-cancer agent – allows for antigen-independent, intracellular delivery of small molecule anti-cancer agents directly into the tumor cell. View a video of the mechanism of action of the technology at http://www.cybrexa.com/our-technology/.
About Cybrexa
Cybrexa is a privately-held biotechnology company dedicated to developing an entirely new class of cancer therapies using its alphalex™ platform to deliver anti-cancer agents directly into tumor cells. The Company’s lead candidate, CBX-11 (alphalex™-rucaparib), is in preclinical development with advancing plans to initiate clinical development by 1Q 2020. Cybrexa was founded by physician-scientists, and has an experienced management team that has built numerous successful life sciences companies and raised hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital. For more information about Cybrexa, please visit www.cybrexa.com.
Contacts
Media Relations